On October 10 and 11, Ukraine experienced the most massive shelling of its territory in the 8 months of the war - a similar missile attack was only on the first day of the invasion, February 24. The occupiers ransacked the energy infrastructure, significantly damaging a number of important energy facilities throughout the country.
Almost immediately, messages from the Russian side began to be thrown into society that residents of large cities should leave their homes, go to the villages and spend the winter there, because the cities will simply freeze. Is this true, explained Professor, People's Deputy of four convocations Mykhailo Pozhivanov, who currently holds the position of the head of the city branch of VO "Batkivshchyna" in Odesa, in an ElitExpert comment.
"Both the shelling itself and such messages are aimed primarily at sowing panic and influencing the minds of Ukrainians, because Russia understands that this is a vitally important issue for us. In this way, they try to influence public opinion - they say that we need to negotiate, otherwise it will be even worse. But it is absolutely impossible to do this. History has already shown that if we freeze the conflict, stop at the current borders, then in three to five years the war will start with new force and will be even harder and worse.
In addition, Ukrainian society simply will not accept any agreements with the enemy. No one will take away our mentality, our European aspirations, our values - this is the request of the Ukrainian people, and there is no turning back from this path. No matter how much it hurts us, Ukrainians now understand the need to go to the end, until the complete liberation of the territory. Only this will allow us to preserve the country, the nation, the culture: whoever loves Ukraine will fight for it to the end," stressed Mykhailo Pozhivanov.
However, according to the expert, the Russian troops will do everything possible to complicate the heating season for Ukraine, which is why even the President warned all citizens that it is necessary to prepare for the hardest winter in recent decades.
"I believe that everything will be fine this winter in settlements that are far from the front line, where the infrastructure is preserved and preparations are underway for the heating season," says Mykhailo Pozhivanov. — There are personnel, there is funding, the system is established and, by and large, only someone's stupidity can lead to the fact that there will be no heating. In addition, today the reserves of gas pumped into storage facilities are enough for the entire heating season. Although, of course, all this will be possible only on the condition that we do not expect new provocations and shelling of Russia in certain cities.
On the other hand, in those regions where the gas and electricity supply has been disrupted due to the war, the infrastructure has been destroyed, it is necessary to sound the alarm there, to see what can be done on one's own at the local government level, and what not, and do not hesitate to contact the central authorities. We all remember the frozen Alchevsk in absolutely peaceful pre-war times: this cannot be allowed."
In turn, the confident politician said, Ukrainians also need to understand the government's initiatives and requests and meet them.
"For example, when power grids were disrupted due to shelling, the authorities appealed to people to limit electricity consumption as much as possible during peak hours - from 17:00 p.m. to 20.00:XNUMX p.m. in order to avoid peak loads and pass this situation without failures and daily fan shutdowns. And our people accepted this with understanding, the problem was solved.
However, in any case, Ukrainians need to think about alternative heating this winter.
"Of course, this primarily concerns villages and towns, because it is almost impossible to find an alternative to gas and electricity in large cities. But you have to accustom yourself to the idea that this winter, apartments may need more warm things. It is necessary to understand the fact that because of the war, the temperature in the apartments will not be +22, as before, but, for example, 16-18 degrees of heat.
And yet, most of all, we want foreign countries to give us the air defense systems we need, as promised, and we received a certain anti-missile shield this winter. Then it will protect us from serious accidents in the thermal infrastructure," concluded the People's Deputy.
